How a Weekly Newsletter Became a $479K Revenue Engine
Industry: Kosher Food & Gift Baskets | Platform: Omnisend | Timeline: Sep 2020 – Mar 2024
Email-attributed revenue
Of total store revenue
Consecutive newsletters
Readership growth
The Challenge
Gili's Goodies sells kosher food and gift baskets to the Anglo-Jewish community in Israel. When the pandemic hit, sales declined and traditional channels fell flat. The business needed a way to stay top of mind, maintain customer relationships, and drive consistent revenue -- without relying on paid ads.
What We Built
Rather than sending promotional blasts, we built a weekly community newsletter -- the Gili's Good Newsletter, "Good News from Israel from the Inside." Each edition featured Israeli news, recipes, community birthdays, anniversaries, weather, and product offers woven in naturally. It ran for over 100 consecutive weeks and nearly doubled its readership. We also built email automations, a lead capture popup, and optimized the website for conversions.
The Results
Over 3.5 years, email became the backbone of revenue:
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Total email-attributed revenue | $478,989 |
| Share of total store revenue | 37.4% |
| Campaign revenue | $275,621 (57.5% of email revenue) |
| Automation revenue | $203,368 (42.4% of email revenue) |
| Email channel share | 99.7% of all Omnisend revenue |
| Newsletter streak | 100+ consecutive weekly editions |
| Readership growth | Nearly doubled over engagement period |
| Website conversions | +30% from site speed optimization |
In His Own Words
"Hillel started working for me in July and hit the ground running. He saw the opportunity in front of our business and we went after it full steam -- and it paid off HUGE. Hillel is very talented and really understands how to target customers with engaging content and re-engage them through email to tremendous effect. He's been a dynamo fixing up the website, building a social media presence, and building amazing email automations. I am so glad that I hired Hillel and can't wait to see what he'll do next."
— David Ehrlich, Owner, Gili's Goodies
The Takeaway
This isn't a story about promotional blasts. It's about building a real relationship with a niche community -- consistently, week after week, for years. When customers feel genuinely connected to a brand, they buy. $479K in email revenue over 3.5 years proves that community-driven email is one of the most powerful retention tools a small business can have.
Running a niche ecommerce brand and want results like this?
hillel@hillelberg.com | hillelberg.com | 054-434-5422
Data from Omnisend platform report, Sep 2020 – Mar 2024.